Maybe it is premature, but maybe it isn’t — especially with the way the Miami Heat looked Sunday in dismantling the Indiana Pacers, giving them a victory over each of the other 29 NBA teams.
Can they break the NBA record of 33 consecutive regular season victories?
They are more than halfway there, with the streak up to 18, and they are not coached by someone like Gregg Popovich who took a 20-game winning streak into Portland last season and sat his best players.
Next up for Miami is a back-to-back Tuesday and Wednesday against Atlanta and Philadelphia. Check. Check, eh?
That would be 20 wins — something that has been accomplished only four times in NBA history.
The Philly game begins a stretch of five consecutive road games, where the Heat are 18-11 after spending the first three months of the season hovering around .500 away from home. If they run the table in Philly, Milwaukee, Toronto, Boston and Cleveland, that would be 24. Four of the next five opponents after that are lottery teams, and the month ends with road games at Chicago (which should have Derrick Rose back by then) on March 27, then a stopover in New Orleans before they head to San Antonio on the 31st.
If they go undefeated in March, the streak will sit at 30.
More on that below with CineSport’s Justin Skackil, plus a look ahead at the Knicks’ upcoming five-game Western swing, a look back at the Bucks recently completed 2-1 Western jaunt and the Games of the Night for Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.
It’s possible.
Either way, whether the streak is at 34 or whether it has been cut in the meantime, I think that’s the point of the season they sit the big 3 and Chalmers and give them 5 games off to heal little niggles (and, just as importantly, to avoid getting any new niggles!) and get some non-junk minutes into the legs of guys like Mike Miller, Joel Anthony and Rashard Lewis because you never know when you’ll need them.
This is right up there with the Lakers winning 70. Excuse me if I don’t jump on this bandwagon just yet.